BEF Football Team
Didn't they do well!
Palm Cove Society increases its accomodation capacity
Palm Cove Society is a social enterprise which provides temporary supported housing for vulnerable women and children. It started with one house with space for three women in October 2007. Within three months it had increased its housing stock to five houses and opened its first house for vulnerable men. However, its first priority remains to provide immediate supported accommodation for women and their accompanying children.
They are unique in this sector providing primary care, guidance and support on lifestyle and health related issues to all its clients in addition to providing accomodation. Palm Cove promotes lifelong learning through collaborative involvement with local training and development facilities. Their clients are encouraged to engage in training and employment and Palm Cove has close relationships with the Light of the World which provides English language training.
In order to be eligible for housing clients must be homeless and the referral has to be made by one of their key partners. Clients are allowed to stay with Palm Cove under licence for 12 months but the majority move on to permanent accommodation after 3 to 6 months.
The friendly and informal atmosphere of its houses has encouraged the engagement of clients in the running of the houses and the development of their own community.
The business will continue to grow in 2008 with another 2 houses expected to be online by the end of January 2008 providing accommodation for up to 24 people. Further expansion will take place throughout the year, with total accommodation capacity expected to reach 30 spaces by summer 2008.
Ace Bace
Bob Adams had been a consultant for a number of years within the energy sector. He had been developing a new product for the logistics market that measures the optimum energy usage for warehouses. This system then modifies the energy levels within the warehouse allowing them to gain savings on their energy bills in excess of 15%.
This is particularly important for logistics companies as one of their largest overheads is energy.
Bob had spent a number of years perfecting the product and had used up much of his own resource to get it to market. But Bob, now in his sixties, needed some further investment to get the units installed into the customer’s warehouses. Although the banks were prepared to go so far via a small overdraft, Bob needed additional working capital to achieve that.
Bob turned to the enterprise fund who saw the potential in this product and decided that they would support it with a £30k loan.
Bob was delighted and is now in the middle of rolling out these devices across the country for such people as DHL, Sainsbury’s and other well known logistics companies.
Sterling Service Centre
The banks would not consider Greg, as he was too young, and as a recent first-time buyer had no equity in his home. Greg wanted to use his skills in his own business by opening a garage that specializes in high-value car maintenance. BEF came along with an £8k loan to help him buy his equipment and get things started.
So far the business has exceeded all our original expectations. He has worked very hard in a short period of time, to establish the garage as a main player in the Bingley area regarding garage services. His enthusiasm is infectious with regards to his care for his customers. No matter what the situation he always has time for them, and as such, has great potential to develop a very good business.
He has already employed 2 staff, and the VOSA approved MOT station is now fully operational.
Sterling Service Centre
Inamoco
Inamoco Ltd
Paul & Michelle Wood had run their own business for a number of years designing and selling specialist children’s clothing in London’s Covent Garden, but after many years of travelling up and down to London decided they wanted to move on. As they have considerable design flair they looked at various businesses that would allow them to use their skills. They decided on the mobile phone and internet social networking market for which they have developed a number of innovative products including personal Avatars and mobile downloads of a similar nature to the well known Crazy Frog.
They approached their bank for a loan to fund the second animation, development of their website and for marketing but were declined. Consequently they approached BEF and with help from BEF put together a compelling business plan and a loan of £30,000 was subsequently approved.
Inamoco Ltd was registered as a company but Paul and Michelle struggled to open a bank account for the business and had to turn to BEF to assist. BEF used its contacts in the banking world and an account was opened with Yorkshire Bank in central Bradford so trading could start.
Redfish Shop Limited
Mark Reilly an IT specialist had been running his own consulting business (redfish Computing) for a number of years. Business was increasingly sporadic and taking Mark away from home for long periods of time. These factors coupled with Marks very young family was putting great strain on the family relationships. Mark had been running a small scale internet trading business supplying computer parts such as cables, modems, and various plug ins. Mark felt there was much more scope for this business to increase turnover with a wider product range that would appeal to more customers.
Mark approached his bank for a loan but despite initial positive indications was declined, so he approached BEF for a loan.
After evaluating the business proposition and developing a business plan a loan of £20,000 was approved and Mark started trading with his new business Redfish Shop Ltd both directly and through a shop on eBay.
As well as employing himself Mark will later in the year be employing 1 member of staff to assist with operations such as packaging, despatch and administration.
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